Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Reuters writes about the new burgeoning Haredi film industry, estimating that 50-100 movies are now made every year. The most astounding claim is that the 'first Haredi chiller,' Cry of the Dead, a "morality tale in which a student, killed in a road accident for verbally abusing his friend, must come back from the dead to atone for his wrong deeds," has been seen by "more than half the adult ultra-Orthodox population of Israel, which numbers in its entirety around 1 million." If true, that's some audience penetration.I wonder when the Israeli Haredi movie makers will realize that one way of influencing their community's rather bruised image nationally will be to make movies about themselves which will interest the secular public as well, not just as a one-off curiosity but because they're genuinely good movies. There have been several movies about the religious/Haredi community in recent years (eg. Kadosh), by secular directors, which have been very successful so the potential is clearly there.